Adam in Australia: Potosi

Showing posts with label Potosi. Show all posts

Tuesday, 30 June 2009

Sucre, Samaipata, and Condors

G’day everyone

Fran and I just left a really nice town called Samaipata, in Bolivia. It’s at around 1,400m amsl, but has a very tropical feel. It’s surrounded by lush forest and has loads of potential. We arrived there a week ago, so I guess I’ll start from where I left off last and fill in the gaps.

After Uyuni, we took a bus ride to Potosi - the highest city in the world. We were there about 4 days, mainly to allow Fran the time to recover from the Bolivia Bug. Potosi is also famous for it’s silver mines. You can visit the mines through “tours” organized by mining co-operatives, but Fran and I did not visit them. I guess the reason we didn’t visit was due to ethical concerns. I mean, the tours have been running for quite a long time, but it seems the workers are still as poor as ever and still work in very dangerous conditions. So we questioned whether money from the tours ever really improves their lot. The last thing I want to do is head down these mines with my big camera taking pictures of their impoverishment.

Anyway, we did enjoy the little bit of Potosi that we saw. It has a very pretty central square which we wandered around a few times. Whilst we were there, there were also loads of parades going on all the time. Firecrackers and bangers were constantly being let off, at all hours of the day, including to our detriment, through the night into dawn.

This church looks over the markets in Potosi

One of the MANY parades in Potosi.

The Cathedral in Potosi

But besides from that, we didn’t see much more of Potosi. From there, it was a three hour bus ride to our next destination: Sucre. And what a city! An incredibly beautiful town - Bolivia’s “Second City” after La Paz. In fact, in the days of Simon Bolivar (the founder of Bolivia, and the person much of South America has to thank for it’s current constitution), it was the fledgling country’s capital. Today, whilst the administrative powers are based out of La Paz, Sucre retains the judicial power.
The switch to La Paz as the nation’s capital was not a popular move, and today, the populace is still divided on the issue. There is plenty of graffiti around stating “Sucre, the True Capital of Bolivia”. Some of this graffiti is also covered in a big “NO”.

The city’s centre is a UNESCO listed World Heritage Centre and retains it’s old colonial influence. White buildings roofed by terracotta tiles. If the city had a coast, it’d be easy to think it as Mediterranean. We were so surprised by this place, knowing that Bolivia is the poorest country in South America. A drive through the country-side proves that the people are certainly impoverished, but Sucre is almost a complete world away.
I say “almost” because there are a few segments that are definitely poor. A trip to the local Mercado Central (Central Market) shows another side of life. The market is huge, and offers all sorts of fruits, vegetables, meats and eateries. Beggars sit around with bowler hats out, asking for money. It’s a very vibrant place and seems so far removed from the beauty of Sucre itself. You can walk around and see severed cow’s heads for sale. Only the poorer people buy them, as that is the cheapest meat to buy.

We spent just over a week in this city - the longest time on this trip in any one place.

Out for dinner at a vegetarian German restaurant…where I ordered steak. And it was good.

Another night out. Cocktails are cheap as chips. I had a Long Island Ice Tea for the princely sum of 2 pounds

Local woman weaves

Beautiful Sucre

Sucre

Anyway, in terms of pictures, I really didn’t take that many of this place. Mainly because Sucre is pretty much the centre for learning Spanish in Bolivia, and Fran and I decided to make the effort and go to a few classes, meaning the time allotted for picture-taking was small.
So we went along one day to Fox Academy and booked ourselves some lessons. We booked through Fox because the money from the Spanish lessons they teach is used to subsidise English lessons for the local people. It’s all not-for-profit, so we were glad to use their services and contribute in some small way.

Our teacher, Maria, was a young enthusiastic lady who was so generous to us and helped us along in the basics of Spanish. In total, we spent four days with her (it would have been five, but I was sick one day) and she took us through the beginnings of Spanish. At times it was like being back in school, and just like school, my attention wandered quite a bit! But still, we learned a fair bit in our time with her. Certainly not enough to strike up conversations with anyone, but with practice, we should be able to pick things up a lot quicker now.

Staying for so long in one place also meant we made a fair amount of new travel-friends. Our hostel was brilliant for this. Everyone we met there was there for at least a week. It was a mixed group as well. Two guys were motor-biking around South America. One woman was looking for her ideal place to set up a hostel. One couple was on a round-the-world trip. One American guy loved Spanish culture and was travelling to be immersed in it. But we were all linked through friendship and our time there was made far more enjoyable because of these people.

Not only is Sucre Bolivia’s judicial capital, it’s also its cultural one. Packed full of museums, it’s the ultimate city to learn about Bolivian culture. The country’s National Archives are based here as well.
We visited a fantastic little museum called Museo de Arte Indigena (you can translate that one!), which displays the mind-boggling weavings of the local tribes. There are some 2000 year old artifacts and a fair amount of other archaeological information. But the weavings are the highlight of the show. The detail and time and effort that goes into them is incredible. If you purchase any of the weavings (which we did,), 65% goes to the woman who made it, 10% goes to the program that helps them make their art, and the remainder goes to the museum to look after the priceless artifacts on display. All in all, a worthy cause.
Each weaving also tells a story, be it a linear tale, or simple events and chores that are important to the weaver. Our weave displays a village surrounded by mountains, in which the women bake and cook, and the men harvest. Parties and celebrations are also important, denoted by a section with lots of people “dancing”.

On the Sunday before we left, we went to a town a couple of hours away called Tarabuco. Famous for it’s Sunday Markets, which are supposedly the most colourful in all of Bolivia.
That might have been a slight exaggeration. It certainly is colourful and all, but seemed a bit life-less. Perhaps that’s because it’s even more relaxed than we are now used to, so gives off the impression of dullness. But it’s the perfect place to see people in their native costumes, and picture opportunities abound so long as 1. You are discreet, or 2. You ask permission first. A lot of Bolivian natives do not want their pictures taken so expect a lot of no’s.

Craig and Tyler at the markets in Tarabuco

Tarabuco markets

That‘s a lama fetus on the left there.

Local woman at the market

Colourful patterns. These “sheets“ are used by the locals to carry stuff on their back. We saw a child being stuffed in one. You couldn‘t see any bit of him when he was wrapped up. Hopefully these things are breathable

Tarabuco

The next day we left Sucre to travel to Samaipata. That was easily the bumpiest and most uncomfortable ride ever. We sat right at the back of the bus, which serves to magnify every bump. In my last blog I stated that most Bolivian roads are unpaved, and this one was no exception. Thankfully, it was an overnight bus (normally we try and avoid overnight buses for safety) but we’re fairly glad to have taken this one. We could see the road skirting cliff edges with room on either side no more than a few centimeters. It’s damn creepy seeing the edge of the road, and then pure black.
The bus arrived at around 5.am and we were met at the station by the owner of the hostel we are staying at: a really nice Texan guy named Trent.
The hostel/B&B is the nicest place we’ve stayed at so far, and that includes all of Argie and Chile. One of the reasons we were sold on this place is that it offers REAL breakfasts, like bacon and eggs, pancakes, porridge, yoghurt and granola etc. When you’re traveling, all you get in other places is bread and jam, so this was a welcome change!

The tropical-esque town of Samaipata

A howler monkey picks Layla‘s head. This was at an animal recovery centre outside of Samaipata.

Blue and Gold Macaws

Another reason we were sold was that it was apparently a great place see Condors, the world’s largest flying bird. So after a day of rest, we drove the two hours to the starting point of a trail, through the roughest terrain ever. Bolivian roads are at best dirt tracks, and at worst dirt tracks with giant rocks and ditches. We had to leave at 5am as well to get a good start on the day. So basically you drive into the middle of nowhere (Samaipata is right next to the middle of nowhere), where you then hike for about 3 or 4 hours to the TRUE middle of nowhere to a cliff edge, against which the Condors build their nests. And as the day warms, the condors take to the air and begin soaring above you and in front of you. What a sight! Seeing an animal that eats flesh (albeit dead flesh) with a 3 meter wing span not 5 meters from your head is a pretty awesome experience. They dwarf the vultures that are common in the area, who themselves can stretch their wings to 2 or more meters. I took so many pictures that day!

Some of the scenery we hiked through to see the Condors. True wilderness.

Precipices? Bah!

Condor. The borders around these images were just because a few people wanted copies, and they have to remember who took them ;-)

This male flew pretty close!

Another male

Another male

Puma tracks

Another day saw us visit a local waterfall, pretty close to the Condor spot. It’s a 70m drop in a sheltered location set amongst some really lush forest. Beautiful location.

Beer and barbeque at the waterfall

On the Saturday night, the town celebrated the festival of San Juan, which basically involves everyone getting extremely pissed (some people drink pure alcohol here), lighting bonfires (getting outlawed actually due to the pollution) and dancing. We went to a local square where all of the above was happening. It was loads of fun. Fran and all the other women had men left right and centre asking them to dance (and most of them asked for permission from the boyfriends first!). One bloke in particular went through a whole line of women.. He was insanely energetic and could out-dance anyone. One dance, the Chacarera, looks identical to Irish step dancing, but in fact is northern Argentine (and also danced in the very south of Bolivia) . Trent also told us about another dance where men and women take turns leading, and as they get more and more drunk, the dance the involves the use of props. The props are basically rocks, and people try to smash each other’s heads in with them. No joke. Obviously this is outlawed, but it does still happen in remote communities. And yes, men and women are known to die from this activity.

So here we are in Santa Cruz, and we've only been here for a day really. Tomorrow we catch an early bus to Cochabamba for one night, then onwards to La Paz. I'll try and post a quick entry just before we head to the Amazon and the Pampas.

I hope all are well. I hear the weather in the UK at the moment is superb! Bet you poms are blistering.

Much love all
Adam

Friday, 12 June 2009

Farewell Chile, Hola Bolivia!

Hi all

Before I go on, I want to wish my dad a happy birthday. He and my mother have just returned from a trip to Nepal and Tibet. My dad wanted to visit Everest Base Camp for his 60th, which they accomplished.
You can see where I get my travelling bug from, hey?
Love you lots guys!

Back to it.

Well we said goodbye to Chile last week, and did it in style. We paid 70,000 CLP each to Cordillera Tours for the trip of a life-time across the border into Bolivia, and passing through awe-inspiring Eduardo Avaroa Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina, and finishing off with the world's biggest Salt Flat - the Salar de Uyuni.

I'll format this blog a bit differently. Loads of text, followed by all the pics. The pics just deserve to be on their own. They can speak for themselves.

The trip takes three days, and the only way to do it is via a tour company. We were picked up at 8am from our hostel (Hostel Iquisa) in a mini-van and, after picking up the rest of our party, we quickly ascended to 4200m, behind Volcan Licancabur to enter Bolivia (check the picture of their immigration office.. very basic). This was the first point that the surrealness of the area hit us. We saw sea gulls around the office. Yep. Sea gulls. I've no idea what they were doing at such an altitude, and also when the driest desert in the world is between them and the coast, but I guess that just shows how successful gulls in general are as a species.

Once that's done, you are allocated a 4WD (all Toyota Landcruisers, and LOTS of them as other companies also do the run) and spend the next six hours or so passing through the first section of the park. In total, there were eight of us on this tour with this particular company, and we were split into two groups of four. The French and Spanish couples (Julien, Melanie, Miguel and Sonja) in the first truck, and Fran, myself, Dave and Carla (both English) in the second jeep. We had wolf stickers on the side of ours, so we knew ours was the cooler jeep.
We had also been warned that the drivers were frequently drunk, stoned, or exhausted, and the jeeps were quite often in rough shape so we were quite nervous as to the composition of our driver and his fourbee! Luckily, we had okay fortune with both.
Our driver introduced himself at the beginning, and we quickly forgot his name. It was definitely something Quechan or Spanish or just foreign, and we didn't find out what it was until two days later when we asked the other driver in our convoy.
"Richard" was apparently his name. Didn't sound like Richard when he said it.

That first day we visited Laguna Verde (Green Lagoon), hot springs, geysers, and finished off at Laguna Colorada (Red Lagoon). At this point I'll interject and just state that it has been a dream of mine to visit Laguna Colorada for about 10 years, so getting to this point was a massive highlight for me. It's incredibly surreal to be in a desert-like landscape, not be roasting, and have the lakes covered in ice.
None of us eight attempted the hot springs, simply because we knew how painful it would be when we got out. Sure it might be warm in there, but hell, I'd probably still have the goose-bumps from getting out if we'd tried it.

At our "hotel" for the night, we met a great little kid named Oscar, who was five, and had the most infectious laugh ever. No matter what you did, he would find funny and would launch into a fit of giggles. Fran has some face-warping software on her phone, and she took a picture of him, and then showed him how he'd look with all sorts of weird features, which he absolutely loved.
Lunch and dinner that day was incredible. Our host (the first glimpse of a "Bolivian" woman - bowler hat, long skirt, woolen jersey etc) cooked us very tasty meals and we prepared for bed on very full stomachs.
Some of us had headaches from the altitude, but no one had any serious problems.

That night, we were all dreading, as we'd heard that the accomodation was BASIC and the temperature regularly dropped to minus 15 degrees.
I layered up in:
-Thermal top and long johns
-singlet
-long-sleeve top
-fleece
-another fleece
-sleeping bag liner
-sleeping bag!
-four thick blankets.
And I was still cold.
I don't think it actually got down to minus 15. It was about minus 5 or minus 10 or thereabouts. Still farking cold!!

Early the next morning after breakfast, we visited Laguna Colorada itself. It's amazing colour is due to blooms of algae and red sediment (most likely iron deposits), which then attract large flocks of flamingoes. It's very weird seeing such tropical looking birds at 4278m amsl!
We spent about half an hour there, walking along the shore, taking lots and lots and lots of pictures, before driving to our next stop El Arbol de Piedra (The Stone Tree). A very strange rock that sits in the middle of the Desierto Siloli, it was formed by wind and water aeons ago; it's very Dali-esque. The remainder of the afternoon sees you visiting the Three Lakes: Chearcota, Hedionda, and Cañapa, and also driving past Volcán Ollagüe. Another very active volcano at 5868m asml. This stretch of the Andes is known as the Central Volcanic Zone, so this should give you an idea of how many volcanoes are about the area.

On the way to our accomodation that night, and very luckily, on a flat stretch of road, the back left rim snapped off, and the tyre pushed it's way half-way off the wheel. This caused the 4WD to start fishtailing, which got progressively worse after each swerve. We were also mere feet away from a ditch, going at pace, so if we hit it, we would've rolled and rolled and rolled. Seat belts are non-existant down here by the way.
Luckily Richard controlled the vehicle superbly, and we managed to get back on the road after about 15 minutes repair work (where we found out the spare we'd been carrying was completely the wrong size, meaning we drove with different size tyres).

That night, we stayed at a "Salt Hotel", about an hours drive from the money-shot of the trip - the Salar de Uyuni. The only place that offered hot showers, which we all took greedily. ALthough the air in the hotel was bitterly cold. If you were an inch away from the stream of hot water, you froze. The air also dries your skin out something fierce! So come prepared if you're in the area.

The following day was the big one. The Salar de Uyuni. The largest Salt Flat on planet earth, at a massive 10.5k square kilometers . Nothing prepares you for the sheer size, the sheer FLATness of this once huge lake. Whatever picture you see will never do it justice. The scale is mind-boggling. When we drove to an "island" in the centre of the flat, the size of distant mountains just did not change after about half an hour at pace. Whereas other stops on the trip elicited loads of "oohs and ahhs", we were all in awed silence for the Salar.

Quick fact here - the Salar de Uyuni is obviously a remnant of a massive lake. BUT that lake is itselft a remnant of an enormous lake that stretched from the Salar all the way to Lake Titicaca (in essense, covering the entire altiplano). It's name was Lake Ballivián. When this giant of a lake dried, it left two smaller (but still huge) lakes: Titicaca and Minchin. Titicaca is still around, but Minchin dried up, leaving two current lakes (Lago Poopó and Lago Uru Uru) and also leaving behind the Salar.

Of course, we had to stop and take pictures of us doing silly poses and jumps as is so common on the flats. This is where the compact cameras rule. The depth of field required for such shots just isn't possible on an SLR, especially a full frame one like the 5D. The 40D fared better, but not by much. So be warned photogs who come here. Bring a G10 or something similar as backup!

We then visited Isla Incahuasi, which is covered in cactus and offers superb 360 degree views of the flats. Here we had our lunch and I opted to walk out into the salt flats and eat on my own. It´s pretty surreal to be sat in the middle of nothing, with a china plate eating your lunch at 3660m amsl.

From there we made our way to see the illegal salt hotel, and we took more crazy pictures.
We saw people mining the salt here too. At this altitude, it´s damn hard work. We asked one guy how long he worked for per day and he said just two hours. Then his mate told us to go away. Fair enough!

So we finished off in Uyuni, and said goodbye to our friends. We´d heard some pretty negative things about Uyuni (that there´s not much going for it), but we were pretty surprised. It´s a nice town, and if you want to relax after the trip, it´s a good place for it. But it gets COLD at night! God damn.

On our second night in Uyuni, we two hired a driver to go back to the Flats to watch a sunset. And dear God, I´m glad we did! If the Salar on it´s own is incredible, seeing it reflecting the colours of the sky at sunset is like nothing else I´ve ever experienced. Easily one of the BEST moments of the entire trip, if not THE best.

From there we made our way to Potosi - the world´s highest city, at 4060m amsl. We´ve found a gem of a hostel here as well, that has hot showers, awesome pressure, private ensuite, a TV with cable and a comfy bed! Just as well, as Fran has been quite sick the past few days, so this is a perfect place for her to recover.

Anyway, I´ll finish here. Not too much detail I don´t think (compared to other posts!) as Bolivian internet is a bit slow (which is understandable) - I´ve been uploading pics for the past 4 days!.

I hope everyone is well, and those in the UK enjoying the start of a good summer.

Much love
Adam

And before I forget, remember more pics are in my Smugmug galleries